from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.

n. Emotions, kindness, moral effort, or spirit in general.

n. A conventional shape or symbol used to represent the heart, love, or emotion: ♥ or sometimes <3.

n. A playing card of the suit hearts featuring one or more heart-shaped symbols.

n. The centre, essence, or core.

v. To be fond of. Often bracketed or abbreviated with a heart symbol.

v. To encourage.

v. To fill an interior with rubble, as a wall or a breakwater.

v. To form a dense cluster of leaves, a heart, especially of lettuce or cabbage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A hollow, muscular organ, which, by contracting rhythmically, keeps up the circulation of the blood.

n. The seat of the affections or sensibilities, collectively or separately, as love, hate, joy, grief, courage, and the like; rarely, the seat of the understanding or will; -- usually in a good sense, when no epithet is expressed; the better or lovelier part of our nature; the spring of all our actions and purposes; the seat of moral life and character; the moral affections and character itself; the individual disposition and character.

n. The nearest the middle or center; the part most hidden and within; the inmost or most essential part of any body or system; the source of life and motion in any organization; the chief or vital portion; the center of activity, or of energetic or efficient action

n. Courage; courageous purpose; spirit.

n. Vigorous and efficient activity; power of fertile production; condition of the soil, whether good or bad.

n. That which resembles a heart in shape; especially, a roundish or oval figure or object having an obtuse point at one end, and at the other a corresponding indentation, -- used as a symbol or representative of the heart.

n. One of the suits of playing cards, distinguished by the figure or figures of a heart.

n. Vital part; secret meaning; real intention.

n. A term of affectionate or kindly and familiar address.

intransitive v. To form a compact center or heart.

transitive v. To give heart to; to hearten; to encourage; to inspirit.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To give heart to; encourage; hearten.

In masonry, to build, as the interior of a rubble wall, solidly with stone and mortar.

To form a close, compact head, as a plant; especially, to have the central part of the head close and compact: as, some varieties of cabbage heart well.

n. The principal organ of the circulation of the blood in man and other animals; the physiological center of the blood-vascular system.

n. The human heart or breast considered as the seat of all or of some of the mental faculties; hence, in common figurative use, these faculties themselves.

n. The intellectual faculties; especially, inmost or most private thought; innermost opinions or convictions; genuine or intense desire or sentiment: as, she despised him in her heart; the heart of a man is unsearchable; the devices of the heart; to set one's heart upon something.

n. Good feeling; love; kindness; sensibility: as, she is all heart; he is all head and no heart; to gain one's heart; to give the heart to God.

n. Courage; spirit; determination; firmness of will; capacity for perseverance or endurance: as, to take heart; his heart failed him.

n. The breast, as covering the heart, considered as the seat of affection.

n. The inner part of anything; the middle or center: as, the heart of a country or a town.

n. The chief, vital, or most essential part; the vigorous or efficacious part; the core.

n. A person, especially a brave or affectionate person: used as a term of encouragement, praise, or endearment.

n. Strength; power of producing; vigor; fertility: as, to keep the land in heart.

n. Something that has the shape or form of a heart; especially, a roundish or an oval figure or object having an obtuse point at one end and a corresponding indentation or depression at the other, regarded as representing the figure of a heart; especially, such a figure on a playing-card.

n. One of a suit of playing-cards marked with such a figure.

n. plural A game of cards played with the full pack by four persons.

n. Nautical, a block of hard wood in the shape of a heart for the lanyards of stays to reeve through.

n. In botany, the core of a tree; the solid central part without sap or albumen. See heart-wood.

He answers with exact fidelity to these inward drawings, either by an elevation of his heart towards GOD, or by a meek and fond regard to Him, or by such words as love forms upon these occasions, as for instance, _My God, here I am all devoted to Thee_: LORD, _make me according to Thy heart_.

It is apparently a lurking disposition to induce men to discharge the duties of beneficence, without laying their hearts on the altar of God, and keeping them perpetually burning there; whereas Christ requires the _heart_, and the heart _always_; and then that conduct which inevitably bursts from a consecrated soul.

Ruskin, from whom we continue to quote, says: It never stops at crusts or ashes, or outward images of any kind, but ploughing them all aside, plunges at once into the very central fiery heart; its function and gift are the getting at the root; its nature and dignity depend on its holding things always _by the heart_.

Words with the same terminal sound

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Comments

The idiom, have (one's) heart in (one's) mouth = to be extremely frightened or anxious, is taken a step further by "his heart sank ...", which is an expression of acute dismay or terror, the degree of emotion being indicated by how far his heart sank: into his stomach, or into his boots.

I opine: as tired and threadbare as this word may be for English users, it practices and professes too much power to be ignored as one of the crown jewels of the current language. That being said, I'd personally like to make less use of it.